District budget holds tax steady

But Tamaqua Area will now ask athletes to pay a fee to play sports.

As part of preliminary approval for the 2008-09 budget, the Tamaqua Area School District will require students to pay a fee to play sports, but $10,000 from an anonymous donor might cover the cost.

The "pay-to-play" fee is part of the board's effort to cut costs from its proposed $25.9 million budget. The budget projects only $25 million in revenues, and would take almost $900,000 from the district's $2 million fund balance.

The proposed budget, which passed unanimously Tuesday, carries no tax increase, keeping the rate steady at 32.11 mills. This year's budget was also approved without a tax increase.

The anonymous benefactor contacted Assistant Superintendent Raymond Kinder Jr. on Tuesday morning to request that the money be used to defray the cost of the sports fee. The money should be able to cover not only the cost for athletes to participate, but also pay for their physicals, which Kinder said cost less than $3,000 this year. Tamaqua had 634 spots on sports teams this year.

The school board voted 9-0 to require athletes to pay $10 for each scholastic sport they play. No parents or students spoke up at the board meeting on the policy.

The board must now develop a policy to determine how the money is allocated among the various sports, Kinder said.

"You may use it in the fall, but not know if you were short in the spring," Kinder said. "It wouldn't be fair just to whack the spring kids."

The new fee applies only to athletics and cheerleading. School officials estimate the fee would raise an estimated $6,300 for the district.

The "pay-to-play" requirement comes just a year after the board required student athletes to pay for their own physical examinations -- a move that is expected to save the district about $3,000 this year. Athletes now have to pay about $7 for their physical exams if they go through the school district's physician at Tamaqua Family Practice, or they can have their own doctor perform the exam.

Other school districts in the area also charge student athletes to play. In East Penn, students must pay $30 to play a sport. In Southern Lehigh, students have to pay for their physical as well as the sport.

The board had considered such fees in the past. Two years ago, it rejected a similar proposal for athletes and the band members after the band director said students would quit if the policy was adopted. The board also rejected such a fee in 1993.

Also Tuesday, the board announced that current Tamaqua Area Middle School Principal Ruth Gardner would become the new high school principal, effective July 1.

Her salary will be $79,062.

Assistant high school principal Chris Czapla will become the new middle school principal.

The board also voted 6-3 to support its share of repairs to the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit. But that vote is moot, because the St. Clair school board, another member of the IU, has already rejected the plan, which required full support from its 12 member school boards.

The repair project would have cost an estimated at $23.8 million; Tamaqua's share of the debt service would have been about $240,000 a year for 20 years.